Turning a Nu Leaf
by Amethyst Blackquill
Summary: Rachel has a partner for Ragna, but he's not sure he can trust them... Original Idea by: DarkOneBloodedge Written by: Kimmo Kimono Apple Pronger


"You know for once, I'm happy to back in this place, even though it's confusing like a labyrinth," The SS-Criminal spouted as his eyes wandered around the decorative interiors of Rachel's living quarters.

They were walking down the hallway. It was a long hallway that was quite a stretch to go through. Ragna had been walking with the Scarlet Onlooker, Rachel, who was taking her time walking.

The blonde onlooker looked on straight with her eyes half-opened, ignoring Ragna's statement.

Ragna gave a slight grunt of impatience. "So what are we supposed to be here for? Isn't this the opposite way from my room?"

"Hush," Rachel said, giving no effort to at least turn to Ragna. "An old friend has been wanting to see you since the beginning of your destructive voyage. She's been worried about you, and I think you would do well to at least quell her worries."

Hmm? Now would that be, Ragna thought in his mind. He paused for a moment, standing still as he let the blonde onlooker go forward to the end of the hallway, unlocking the only door that's on the end of it.

Lots of things have been going on, and Ragna didn't have time to think of other things than what he has to do. Who was his friend? Why was she here? Why was she worried about him?

His thoughts were interrupted when he barely heard through his daydreaming, "You are so fortunate that you're cute, Ragna..."

Wait, was that Rachel saying that just now. "What?"

"Hmm?"

"Did you just say that I was-"

"Not important," She firmly interrupted him. Rachel was facing Ragna with the door behind her. "What is important is that you will need assistance in the future. I believe that she will be an excellent partner for you."

She held the doorknob with one hand, and then slowly opened it as wide as it could go.

The criminal felt confused. There was nobody coming out of the door. Why? What's the point if there's nobody.

For some odd reason, Ragna felt a draft of wind coming from behind him with a trace of roses riding on the flow of it. The petals of roses were drifting into the open room.

Rachel silently pointed in the direction behind Ragna. Slowly, he turns the way she was pointing to see a pale sight he knew all too well. Nu-13.

 _"This can't be happening,"_ He thought with horror. He tried to open his mouth to vocally protest, but nothing ever came out. He was too jumbled up to even ask anything. He wanted to know: Was SHE going to be HIS partner?

The pale, bluish figure stepped closer to him, and then her lips formed a smile a mile wide.

Ragna slightly bent his legs into a fighting stance, but refrained from taking out his sword. He knew there had to be some kind of reasoning behind why Nu was just standing over there opposite of where the blonde onlooker was standing.

As Ragna peered on closer to the Murakumo Unit, he noticed that something was different about her smile. It didn't seem...full of lust or malice. It looked...sincere, almost familiar. Familiar to a smile from someone he once knew.

Nu took a quick, deep breath, then screamed, "RAGNA!"

In slow motion, he saw Nu running to him with open arms. His legs went stiff. He couldn't move at all. Again, Ragna instinctively knew something was different from the way Nu was running toward him.

The way Nu was running towards him looked like a little girl running up to her daddy after a long day at work, not with the usual insane intent. What is the rabbit up to, he asked himself. He dropped his pseudo-fighting stance, and just stood up straight, ready for whatever the robotic-human was about to do. Rachel was there; if she were to do anything dangerous, Rachel would save him.

"Oh, Ragna!" Nu finally reached her beloved. She encased her arms around Ragna, and buried her face in his chest. "Nu's so happy you came back! Nu was so worried about you!"

He slightly squirmed a bit, but he still feels nothing harmful from her. Slowly, with his left arm, he puts a hand on top of the pale girl's head. She was fully receptive to his touch, and happily snuggled against him while giggling.

Ragna couldn't help but feel cozy with what he was feeling from her. He glances behind him without turning his head, asking in a rather soft tone, "Rabbit, are you trying to tell me she's my new partner?"

"You have nothing to fear with her." Rachel said with her usual sense of confidence. "I made sure she has her priorities straight from a...talk she and I had."

A talk huh? He knew there was something to that talk.

"She's right, Ragna!" Nu said, still clinging to him. Ragna's averted his glance to Nu who was looking up at him with beady eyes. "N...Nu...I'm sorry, Ragna!"

He couldn't resist flinching from hearing that. "Come...again?"

"Nu's so sorry!" The pale girl said again with beady eyes with light reflecting off of them. "Nu doesn't want to fight with Ragna anymore! Nu only wants to be helping Ragna!"

"You...want to help me?" The criminal asked, very suspicious of Nu.

"Yes!" She practically shouted.

Ragna fully turned his head around to see Rachel. Rachel nodded, signaling to Ragna that everything is okay, and that she's not worried of Nu being with Ragna.

Ragna got the signal, and so he turned his head around back to Nu. "Here's how it's going to work. You're going to listen to everything I tell you to do, alright?"

Nu quickly nodded. "Yes!"

"You're not going argue?"

"Nope! No way!"

"You're going to obey my every command?"

"Glaaadly..." Nu said that with a dreamy tone.

Ragna swallowed his saliva, and pondered for a few seconds while glancing down at the girl who was still hugging him close to her. "So you had a talk, huh?"

Nu nodded her head again. "Yup! The vampire and Nu had a long talk! It started to all make sense now! Nu just wants to make Ragna happy, no matter what. Nu loves Ragna, but...it's a kind of love that nobody can go without! Nu knows that although it was different that Nu thought it was, it makes sense why Ragna loves Nu that way!"

This made the SS-Criminal slightly confused. He turned his head around to the Scarlet Onlooker to ask what the hell is going on with her. Rachel shrugged her shoulders and signaled to him to just go with it and trust that she's no longer trying to kill him out of love, or rather, insanity.

Ragna, again, turns his head back at a puppy-eyed Nu who was looking up at him with those eyes.

"What about you? Do you love Nu, too?"

It took him a moment to think about it. He felt a sense of nostalgia looking at Nu as well as feeling her embrace. He initially hadn't notice it before but once she attached her arms around him, she never let go. He didn't feel a need to get her off, considering he doesn't feel malicious intent behind her actions.

Ragna looked down, directly at her so that they were making direct eye-contact. His face slowly morphed into a light smile as he nodded "yes" to her question.

Nu gasped, and then practically squeezes Ragna as she yells out, "YEEEEEAAAAHHHH!"

"Silence." Rachel interrupted her, for the sake of their sanity. "You two have a long road ahead of you both. I suggest you two go to slumber. It's probably going to be a long time before you'll get to rest on a proper bed after tonight."

"Oh yeah." Ragna agreed as he finally pushed Nu off of him. "If you could show me the way back to my room, rabbit? I don't think I can make it back myself, now that you dragged me all the way out here."

"Eh? B-But Nu wants to sleep with you, Ragna..." Again, she had those puppy-eyes on while talking in a needy manner.

Both Ragna and Rachel flinched. Ragna shuddered as he point out to Nu, "Nu, when you say things like that... N-Never mind. Rabbit! Can you just bring me back to my room?"

"Do tell. Whatever do you mean, Ragna? You are at your room." The onlooker replied with obvious fake obliviousness.

"Isn't this Nu's room-WAIT A MINUTE!" Ragna reeled backwards. He didn't know that Nu was right behind him, so he fell back right into a hug from behind by the pale girl. "HOLD ON! TELL ME THERE ARE SEPARATE BEDS, PLEASE!"

"Do you think I hadn't thought of that scenario, Ragna? Of course there are." Rachel replied casually. "If you two are going to be partners, you two ought to spend some quality bonding time together to build trust. Besides..."

"Besides...?" Ragna anxiously questioned while still feeling the tug of the pale girl's flimsy arms around him.

The onlooker continued, "Besides, I ensured that my work on her is foolproof so that nothing absurd happens. Should anything happen, it would be the cause of your own primal instincts as an animal, or in this case, dog."

"Oh! She got you there, Ragna!" Nu giggled at him as she lets go of her hug on him.

" _Can't I ever meet any normal girls?"_ Ragna groaned out loud as he shot a glare at the pale girl. "I thought you were supposed to be on MY side!"

"Nu is always on Ragna's side! A little friendly teasing never hurts! Hee-Hee!" Nu grinned at him.

Rachel couldn't help but give a light snicker to that, but then she quickly turned serious again. "Okay. I believe we had enough fun at the man's expense. You will take it from here, Nu. Ragna, be a good boy and listen to your sister."

The criminal's eyes nearly popped out of their eye sockets. "SAY WHAT?!"

Nu's grin only became wider with Ragna's panicking. "Oh, Ragna! You're such a crack up! Ha, ha, ha!"

* * *

Ragna was laying in bed, his coat dangling on the coat hanger that was standing in between the two beds. He knows he should be getting some hard-earned rest, but a certain pale girl is keeping him awake with her constant apologies on the other side of the room...

"A-And about that one time when Nu tried to stab you in the chest, Nu's sorry for that, too. Oh, and also..."

It just went on, and on, and on...

Ragna groaned aloud as he raised his voice, "For the one hundredth thousandth time...I FORGIVE YOU! Just PLEASE go to sleep!"

Nu sat up in her bed. "B-But Nu can't sleep! Not after seeing you again, Ragna! Hey! Nu can tell you something interesting! You're gonna love this, Ragna!" She giggled after that last statement.

"Try me," Ragna said in a carefree way. Last time she said something like that, it was just another apology. He had already forgiven her. Ragna had to wonder though, does he really come across as insincere when he says "It's okay?"

"It's about the talk we had..." Nu said rather...seriously compared to her usual bubbly tonality.

Ragna couldn't help but sit up and face the pale girl. "Hmm?"

Nu giggled for a moment. "Got your attention, now, huh?"

"Just hurry up and tell me, Nu." Ragna said with impatience evident in his voice. He wasn't one to pry in other people's business sans a few exceptions. Rachel was one of them. If Rachel was involved, he couldn't help but feel the need to know.

"Under one condition..." Nu's face flushed slightly as she looked slightly downward.

Ragna saw her facial expression. He slowly scooted a bit backwards in his own bed. "H-Hold on! I thought the rabbit said you weren't gonna do your funny business!"

Nu suddenly burst out in laughter. "Nu didn't even say anything, Ragna. You need to get your mind out of the gutter!"

"EXCUSE ME?!" Ragna felt a HUGE sense of irony with that coming out of Nu. "Then what the hell were you going to say, Nu? Tell me."

Nu giggled lightly. "Nu was just going to ask if you could sit next to her as she told you. It's something that Nu doesn't feel comfortable talking in a full voice about. Besides, Rachel said you had ears full of that waxy stuff so it's hard for you to hear."

Ragna's right eye twitched. _"Rabbit, if you had been teaching her shit, I swear..."_ He sighed out loud in defeat as he made his way to Nu's bed, then sat on the edge of it, near her.

Nu eagerly got up and sat very close, next to him. "Thank you!" She exclaimed as she leaned on him. She took a deep breath before softly saying, "...Nu missed you...a lot, you know that?"

Ragna only nodded, not sure of what to say.

The pale girl continued, "So...you left Nu with the vampire, right? Well... Nu wasn't really...happy about it, to say the least. She even tried tearing the place apart."

Ragna only nodded, not feeling surprised that the pale girl would try something like that. He knew too well how crazy in the head she is.

Seeing Ragna's nod prompted her to continue. "When Nu tried to kill the vampire, she didn't stand a chance. Everything went black...for a long time..."

Ragna slowly turned his head downward, in the direction of the pale girl whom was still leaned on his left arm. "Black for a long time? The rabbit knocked you out cold?"

"Well, yes and no." Nu replied in an unsure way. "Nu's still not sure how, but...even though everything was black, Nu still felt like she was awake. Nu could hear all around...a voice. Her voice."

Ragna blinked a few times, "What did she say?"

With her left hand, Nu softly put it on her forehead. "It hurts a bit to remember, if Nu's honest. Basically, what she was telling Nu was...that Ragna did care for Nu...just not in the way Nu was thinking."

"What you were thinking? Well, what did you think before?" Ragna said with anxiety in his voice. He felt unease about what Rachel could have said to her.

"Before I get into that, Ragna," Nu clung onto Ragna's left arm with both of her own hands. "...I want to say it's not your fault..."

This was beginning to stir a feeling Ragna's stomach. Instinctively, he knew that something from the past was going to be brought up, considering all the tribulations he went through with this girl. He only nodded, which was all Nu needed to continue.

"Before Nu actually met you, Ragna... A lot of messed up things were done with Nu. It wasn't science. It was torture. They...did a lot of messed up things to me. They electrified, stabbed me with needles, treated me like an object...it was horrible... Worst thing is that I couldn't move or talk. I could only scream through my head. No matter how much I wanted to scream, I couldn't."

" _She's not speaking in 3rd person anymore..."_ Ragna knew that this was her way of being serious.

He continued listening to her,

"There was one thing that was keeping me sane, though... It was memories of a boy that looked just like you, Ragna. The boy was so caring. I called him brother... But... I don't even remember having a brother. However, it felt so real. The way he cared for me, the way he gave me love, and the way he would always be there for me whenever I call for him. Even if those memories weren't real, it was the only thing I had to hold on to. I wanted to die... I seriously wanted to die for the pain to just finally go away... But no matter how much I wished for death, it never came."

The feeling that Ragna initially felt in his stomach was growing worse. Flashbacks of his days with Saya before that dreadful day begain running through his head. It hurt to be suddenly remembering all this, but he stayed strong for Nu.

The pale girl slowly flowed into her next sentence. "I wanted to see him, even if it's just once. I've grown to love that man, no matter how he might treat me. He would be better than all those other people who hurt me so much, I knew."

"...no..." Ragna whispered under his breath, barely audible, but not loud enough for Nu to hear.

Ragna continued to listen to Nu but his mind is starting to race. He was getting slight nausea from having to hear Nu's story.

"...Then...like a miracle, you came along, Ragna. We met for the very first time. It was like a dream come true for me. If I could move, I would reach out my hand for you to save me... But...then..."

 _"No...stop it..."_ The air started to chill around Ragna.

"...You killed me instead of saving me. You butchered me into pieces..."

Ragna shuddered recalling that.

"...You did it twice...and I could even hear you laughing at me..."

Ragna swallowed deeply before meekly saying. "N-Nu, th-that's-"

"WAIT FOR ME TO FINISH TALKING!" She shouted at him, suddenly raising her head and making eye-contact with him.

The sudden appearance of how serious her face looked took Ragna aback, causing him to just sew his mouth shut.

Nu slowly lowered her head again and leaned onto his arm, clutching it tightly for dear life. "I...I thought for so long...it was your way... Your way of telling me that you loved me, Ragna... I thought that...violence your way of showing me your love."

A brief pause hung in the air before she continued once more. Ragna was just silent, not talking or moving; just staring at her blankly.

"...So I...I tried returning the favour...by trying to be just as violent as you were those two times when we met again for the third time, but you beat me so easy... Like, was I not enough for you? Was I not violent enough? Violence was our love. The world has been cruel to both of us, so we should become one and tear everything up."

In a hoarse voice, Ragna barely said, "W-What does this have to do, at all with what the rabbit has said to you?"

Nu softly squeezed Ragna's left arm before saying, "She said to me...that violence isn't love. Violence is only violence. You spared me. You could have easily killed me a third time...but you didn't! Ragna, why? Why did you suddenly decide to...spare me?"

Ragna slowly turned his head away from Nu, unable to look at the face that resembles Saya in a few ways anymore. "...Nu...there's a difference between the first two times, and our third meeting. The first two times, I was mad. You are right about one thing. The world has been cruel to both of us. I was consumed by my rage. That bastard Terumi took everything away from me, my life that used to be peaceful with my little siblings and the old hag. When I got my power, I could think of nothing but vengeance for what was done to me. I was only focusing on killing anything that dared to step in the way between me and my chance to kill the shit out of that bastard. I was willing to even throw away my sense of humanity to get there."

Nu looked curiously up at Ragna like a little child.

After hearing no reply from Nu, he just continued, "But something changed for me along the way... I can't say what, though. Along the way, I...started to recognise the pain. Someone...who was also a Murakumo died willingly for me. That was such bullshit. Why did she have to just dive in front of me like that to take the hit? But it was because of that sacrifice she made, I was able to take advantage and take the step I needed to take to move on. From that point forward, I started to realise...that Murakumo were people, too."

A heavy silence hung in the air for a long moment.

Ragna sighed before continuing, "Nu, our lives have been torrential. Both of us have that in common. You were lucky enough to have those memories of that boy who took care of you. That was your only comfort, wasn't it?"

Nu nodded, "Y-Yes. Nu...I...only had those memories to hold on to. It was my only source of happiness. For so long, I thought violence was my only way of being happy. But...the vampi...Rachel...taught me that wasn't how it works. She told me that love exists in many kinds of forms. Not killing me was a way of showing love, wasn't it?"

He wasn't sure how to answer that. In fact, it made him confused in a couple of ways. "That's not quite how it works, but you're on the right track." Ragna didn't even know if what he said made sense, but it's all he's got to go with for the moment.

Nu nodded again as she continued. "...When she was talking to me, I also came to realise that violence wasn't everything. I thought that violence was my only way of being useful to you, but she taught me that it was different than how I thought. Now, all I want to do is...help you with whatever you want to do. I don't want to fight you anymore, Ragna."

Ragna lowered his head that he was staring at the floor. "...Me too, Nu..." Ragna took a deep breath before just falling backwards into the mattress. "To be honest, I don't even understand how it's not my fault."

Nu cuddled up next to Ragna, nudging at his arm. He knew what she was asking. He put an arm around her as he lay horizontally on the bed. "I just wanted to make you feel better, Ragna... Besides, in a way it really isn't your fault. I was also told by Rachel that angry people make no sense."

Ragna slowly rolled his eyes at Nu. "I just hope you won't take after the rabbit with her habits of being a bitch."

Nu softly giggled, "Are you kidding me? Teasing you is so much fun, Ragna!"

Ragna groaned out loud. "Nu, can you please just shut up now? We still haven't slept."

"Can I ask more thing, Ragna?"

"What?"

Nu's face slightly flushed again before asking hesitantly, "C-Can Nu sleep next to you? It's been so long since we last saw each other, Ragna..."

Ragna exhaled, then silently aligned himself in the direction of how the bed was stretched out vertically. "Just promise me you'll go to sleep, and no funny business, okay?"

"Promise!" Nu enthusiastically said as she tucked herself in next to Ragna. "Besides, Nu already knows what's going on between you and Ra-"

"JUST GO TO SLEEP, ALREADY, NU! Wait! How do you even know about that?!"

Nu giggled insidiously as she said, "She said you were cute, didn't you hear her?"

Ragna felt as though a bunch of bricks hit his face. _"...So that's what she said...about me... Wait, how the hell am I cute? I don't even look adorable, and shit! At least say I'm the coolest..."_

* * *

 ** _Author's Note: This Fanfiction was part of a heavily discussed idea by DarkOneBloodedge. This is a slight deviation from the original idea, but we constantly kept in touch to keep within the context of both the canon and the idea. Throughout the writing, DarkOne said that the writing was good and, now I present the finished test product of part of the idea._**

 ** _Special thanks goes to DarkOneBloodedge._**


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